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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25655446">Be</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaworuMakino/pseuds/KaworuMakino'>KaworuMakino</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Perfect Days [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Banana Fish (Anime &amp; Manga)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 02:28:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,072</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25655446</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaworuMakino/pseuds/KaworuMakino</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>For Eiji Day 2020. A day in the life of everyone's favorite photographer after all the drama and danger settles. Can read in the series order or as a standalone.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ash Lynx &amp; Okumura Eiji, Ash Lynx/Okumura Eiji</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Perfect Days [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860112</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Be</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I just found out about Eiji Day and whipped this up! The lighthouse trip visit was inspired by Izumo Hinomisaki Lighthouse. This can be read as happening after my fic "A Perfect Day" but it should work as a standalone as well.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sure, my legs burned, but the cool air around me was more than enough distraction. </p>
<p>As were the seagulls' cries intermittently breaking up the repetition of waves crashing, repeating, and crashing again. Sounds of collision, sounds of retreat. Wet and stone meeting, parting, meeting again were more than enough distraction. As were the taste and smell of salt, a faint pleasure hung all around the light blue sky. The clouds were the color of the birds' feathers and sometimes whole flocks would disappear against the masses of floating water. </p>
<p>The water below, meanwhile, kept crashing, retreating, crashing, retreating. Not exactly gently, nor exactly monstrous. Playful, almost, like nature roughhousing with itself. </p>
<p>I aimed my camera, honed my gaze, and clicked the capture button. A turn of my head, a different gull, another click. Lots of wide shots of cloud and foam. I couldn't really zoom in much from meters and meters above the ground after all. </p>
<p>I was standing on the thin railing of the lookout point near the top of the lighthouse. The ascent up the interior stairs had been a long one, and after already having walked most of the way to the lighthouse itself my legs were tired. But that was alright, it was what I had gone there for: to feel. </p>
<p>I took about a dozen more pictures from up high before beginning my descent back down the stairs. I hadn't passed many people on the way up, nor did I on the way back down. It was about three o'clock on a Tuesday and I imagined people busily moving about at their offices, in classrooms, or wherever their daily monotony might take them. I was thankful to have more flexibility myself. </p>
<p>Still, I envisioned an office. Ash's office, where he was was likely pouring over translations and making notes or writing up translations of his own. He certainly stuck out like a sore thumb in Izumo, but his usefulness and skill for transcribing materials into English had quickly landed him a part-time job. </p>
<p>I, meanwhile, had the day off from mine and so there I was at a lighthouse I hadn't visited since I was a child. The sky and sea were both as blue as I remembered, and the air as fresh. Once I finished descending the stairs and stepped back outside I savored the taste of salt some more. The air pressed against my skin softly, perfectly. My mind, again, fluttered briefly back to Ash before I started exploring the area around the lighthouse to try and take some more up-close shots. </p>
<p>The cliffs and edges of shore were uneven and varied; some were just gray-brown rock extending outward over the ocean while others were coated in small shrubs and grass. I mostly focused on getting shots of bushes illuminated by the sun, some with butterflies hovering into view and others with droplets of water rising in the background from waves having just made their way back inward. In, out, meeting, parting. </p>
<p>I wandered around aimlessly like this for another half hour or so before deciding that I'd better start making my way home. My legs were already sore and I was going to feel too tired to move very quickly on my way back. </p>
<p>I ended up taking a different route than I had on my way out and I passed another landmark I'd forgotten about: my old high school. I looked across the street at the front gates, then shifted my gaze to the left outer grounds where I could see the edge of the track in the distance. </p>
<p>How many years had it been-- four? five?-- since I'd been there every day after school, bracing myself, pushing up off the ground, becoming a part of the skyline myself, even if only for a moment?</p>
<p>Birds chirped in the trees around me as I kept walking. I looked up. The sky was still blue, the breeze still soft. The air around me, above me, was beautiful and I no longer felt so weighed down by my inability to fly up against it. The ground wasn't so bad of a place. </p>
<p>When I got home and unlocked the door, I was surprised to see a pair of dress shoes already placed in their usual spot. </p>
<p>"Ash?" I called out. "Are you home already?"</p>
<p>"In the kitchen!" I heard him shout. </p>
<p>"Be there in a minute!"</p>
<p>I slipped off my shoes and went to our bedroom to change into less sweaty clothes. I put on a pair of shorts and one of Ash's old t-shirts: a white top with the word "banana" printed in all caps within a black rectangle. Just bizarre. And comfy. And with the faint smell of Ash's cologne. I fixed my hair up a bit and walked to the kitchen, where a familiar scent wafted into my nostrils. </p>
<p>"Natto?" I asked, confused. But there they were: two bowls full of fresh natto on the counter and Ash standing beside them, smiling. </p>
<p>"Welcome home, Eiji."</p>
<p>"I didn't know you were getting off work early today."</p>
<p>"I wanted to surprise you. Now sit," he said, motioning to the dining table. I did so and he brought me my bowl. </p>
<p>"You hate natto. What do you want to apologize to me for?" I teased. I wasn't remotely mad about anything, nor had we been fighting recently aside from our usual lighthearted ribbing. </p>
<p>"Can't a husband just want to do something nice for his husband?" Ash retorted with a smile before taking a seat across from me and starting on his own bowl. He gulped his first biteful down then immediately took a large chug of water. I laughed. </p>
<p>"I can't do it; I hate this stuff. Have mine if you want." He got up and started thumbing through cabinets before ultimately pouring himself a bowl of cereal and sitting back down. </p>
<p>"How was your day?" I asked. </p>
<p>"Pretty good. Better now."</p>
<p>I blushed. "No, really. I come home to find you here early and you've even made me natto. What's up?"</p>
<p>"I just wanted to do something nice for you," Ash said softly. None of his barbed humor, no teasing. I looked in his eyes and he started blushing too. </p>
<p>"Ash," I said before getting up and walking over to his side, wrapping my arms around his shoulders and tucking my head on top of his. "I love you."</p>
<p>"I love you too, Eiji."</p>
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